Happy walkers at border marker X4

Friday 14 April 2023: ACT Heritage Festival Walk * – S/E. A Heritage Festival walk, ArchivesACT and CBC in partnership, to border marker X4 on the eastern edge of Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (MAP66i) – Distance: 7.49km | Climb: 278m | Time: 1:49 moving + 0:48 of stops = 2:37 | Grading: S/E-M; E(6).

Photographs Photographs are available here.
gpx File The gpx file is available here.

More information on the ACT border, including photos of every extant border marker and blaze tree (if you drill down) is available here.

Track Notes

I was last through here on 10 Apr 23 , 5 Dec 22 and a bit on 15 Mar 23.

ArchivesACT and CBC partnered to facilitate this Heritage Festival activity. 18 booked and attended at the Mandawari (Bandicoot) Gate 17 entrance to Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, just off Horse Park Drive.

G’days, signons, Acknowledgement of Country, and some introductory remarks, including a great handout for everyone from the Territory Records Office. It’s an extract of two pages from Percy Sheaffe’s original field note book, digitised and made available by ArchivesACT here, or via the QR code in the image below. It was proudly announced that the digitised field note books have been included in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register because of their historical significance.

ArchivesACT handout of Percy Sheaffe’s field notebook

My handout was a little less effective – a business card with a QR code leading to the landing page of this blog where I’d temporarily placed the following, plus a map segment of the walking options.

Example Border Corner Markers

Example Blaze Trees

We then walked through the Mandawari (Bandicoot) Gate 17 and north along the Canberra Centenary Trail. After a km or so we turned right up an old fire trail, met the predator-proof fence and followed it to the Maga Maga (Snake) Gate 15. The opportunity to point out local features at various times.

We climbed through open grasslands and sparse woodland to the ACT border.

Walking up to the ACT border on the E edge of Goorooyarroo NR

More border survey stories. We stopped and had a look at the probable 13 Mile marker, then on a couple of hundred metres to border marker X4 (see above).

A break here, then decision time. 5 decided to return with me via Old Joe Hill, the Buru (Kangaroo) Gate 14 and the CCT. On the border we saw corner lockspits W4, V4, U4 and T4.

View E from Old Joe Hill

Most grateful to @terrylea-hikergirl for taking the others back via Gecko Hills and out through the Baray (Possum/Sugar Glider) Gate 16.

Walkers descending from Gecko Hills | photo @terrylea-hikergirl

A great time had by all!

Track Map

Here’s where we went.

Track ACTArchives-CBC Heritage Festival Walk to X4. Pink for girl leader, blue for boy

The AllTrails map is here, where you can pan and zoom.

Party

18 walkers.

Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog FaceBook Page

I’ve started up a FaceBook page. Each trip report posts to it. So it’s another way to get some info to get out and breathe a bit of fresh air. Why not pop over and Follow the page, or give a post a Like.